Uber, Just Pretend You’re a Public Company

Uber’s failure to disclose a huge data breach points up one peril of private ownership. Customers deserve to know the truth.

By

Alex Eule

November 25, 2017

By

Alex Eule

November 25, 2017

In last week’s cover story, Barron’s addressed the increasing trouble surrounding the unicorn class—start-ups valued at $1 billion or more. In the story, I argued that investors’ embrace of these privately held companies enabled weak governance and poor behavior at many unicorns, and cited Uber Technologies as Exhibit A. Sure enough, Uber again lived up to that billing days after the story ran. Last week, the ride-sharing company said it had suffered a data breach resulting in the theft of information about 57 million customers.